25th February 2009, 11:22 AM
As a first timer on this forum i would like to make a couple of quick comments. I am a university lecturer/research scientist working on genome sequencing projects amongst other things. I am also having to adapt my work to the vagaries of the human tissue act.
Firstly i think its great that this debate has been opened. I am sure that there will be plenty of disagreements but at least there is some sort of grown up debate ongoing; dialogue is better than sullen silence.
I am know nothing of archaeology and im not a druid either but like to think of myself as an open minded scientist. I personally know Oddie and we have spent many hours chatting about aspects of science DNA genes etc. I have also attended a Druid ceremony at Avebury and these guys are not nutters or extremists. They have some ideas that may seem a bit strange to some but i dont beleive that science has all the answers; there are many practising muslims and christians who integrate their beliefs with their science. I think oddie et al are honestly trying to open up the debate on human remains; they are not anti-science per se.
My personal opinion is that there is a bit of a 'these are our bones' mentality amongst the scientific community and this debate should take place. On the other hand i see practical problems with requests for reburial.
One thought i had was that was that each generation of archaeologists is potentially ruining a site for the next generation. But of course that means that no one would ever be able to do any archaeology. Digging up artifacts and remains is essentially a destructive process even using today's 'advanced techniques'. Perhaps one day the scanning technologies will be so advanced that material can be examined in situ without excavating sites at all.
I personally don't like to see the mummified remains on display in the BM. In fact i have taken fellow Egyptian scientists around the displays in the BM and felt embarrassed. I dont see why you cant at least display replicas of human remains as they do for many dinosaur fossils for example.
Firstly i think its great that this debate has been opened. I am sure that there will be plenty of disagreements but at least there is some sort of grown up debate ongoing; dialogue is better than sullen silence.
I am know nothing of archaeology and im not a druid either but like to think of myself as an open minded scientist. I personally know Oddie and we have spent many hours chatting about aspects of science DNA genes etc. I have also attended a Druid ceremony at Avebury and these guys are not nutters or extremists. They have some ideas that may seem a bit strange to some but i dont beleive that science has all the answers; there are many practising muslims and christians who integrate their beliefs with their science. I think oddie et al are honestly trying to open up the debate on human remains; they are not anti-science per se.
My personal opinion is that there is a bit of a 'these are our bones' mentality amongst the scientific community and this debate should take place. On the other hand i see practical problems with requests for reburial.
One thought i had was that was that each generation of archaeologists is potentially ruining a site for the next generation. But of course that means that no one would ever be able to do any archaeology. Digging up artifacts and remains is essentially a destructive process even using today's 'advanced techniques'. Perhaps one day the scanning technologies will be so advanced that material can be examined in situ without excavating sites at all.
I personally don't like to see the mummified remains on display in the BM. In fact i have taken fellow Egyptian scientists around the displays in the BM and felt embarrassed. I dont see why you cant at least display replicas of human remains as they do for many dinosaur fossils for example.